What do you know about my guys Ed and Head? I, unfortunately, can offer only precious little information about this duo. We know, though, that it was a recent creation. The bond between British pop singer Ed Sheeran and Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welsh was reportedly forged backstage at—bear with me here—a recent Marilyn Manson concert in Nashville.
Head’s Instagram, which often features devotional posts celebrating Jesus Christ, encourages us to imagine the scene thus: Sheeran, in sweatshirt and silly cap intended to make him look like a more normal man, breezes past the two guitarists of Korn (Munky is not pictured) in a backstage area open to friends of Marilyn Manson only. On his way, Sheeran turns to off-handedly inform the two dreadlocked nu-metal icons that he had just listened to their band’s most famous song earlier that day (October 22).
There is then an unaccounted-for window of time during which Sheeran moves from offering his brief praise of “Freak on a Leash” (or just acknowledging that he has listened to it at least once) into selfie position with Head. The angle Head chooses is strange and expressionistic. His face registers some impossible-to-parse combination of shock, joy, reverence, and mockery. In the foreground, Sheeran—as has been proven by so many previous photos—struggles with smiling, preferring to stare blankly at the camera with a faint hint of a smirk.
At some point, presumably, the two (and Munky, who really got the short end of the stick by not getting in the photo here) parted ways. Regretfully, my narrative doesn’t include any insight into the reason why Ed Sheeran was in attendance at a Marilyn Manson concert in Nashville, because I have none. I have listed my sources below, if you’d like to cross-reference anything:
